The Sayings of River

Wednesday, April 23, 2008 6:34 PM

So, the odd arc phrases:

"Hands of blue, two by two..."

"Also, I can kill you with my mind."


Those kids say the darndest things:

"They took Christmas away. All the presents,the tree, and the stockings. Nothing left but coal. Can't look in the closet, either. It's greedy--not in the spirit of the season."

"Hummingbird."

"Your toes are in the sand."

I just want to say that if Whedon thought all these up, then he is even more of an evil genius than I thought. Because on the surface, almost every single thing River says makes absolutely no sense. But looking at it from the perspective of the scene, or the end of the episode, or the end of the movie changes everything. But maybe it's like fortune cookies. They're random bits of information, but they can be applied to pretty much anything. Still, the inspiration had to come from somewhere. And the quality of writing and acting is very subtle--it's not easy writing or acting an "interesting" kind of 'crazy'.

I like how River's character applies old sayings to new situations. The nursery rhymes, old fragments and the detritus of a mind slowly sweeping itself back together make me think of 1984's "Oranges and lemons/Say the bells of St. Clemens"...

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